The Project

When I arrived at Saha Christian Suksa School over 2 years ago, they told me of this dream. They were in the process of applying to extend the school from 6^th grade to 9^th grade. There are many reasons for doing this, and I’ll get into that later. Part of extending through 9^th grade includes needing a new classroom building. The building projected is a two story building with 8 classrooms for the 7^th-9^th grades to use. The school typically has 2 classes of each grade, so that would be 6 rooms and the other 2 would be teachers’ office space, or specialty rooms Ex: Science lab, English room, Music room, etc…

The past two years they have been keeping me in the loop with the progress, hoping that I would help to raise the funds for the building. The projected budget at the time was 6 million Baht which is around $200,000. I often translated project proposals for them so that they could send it to churches or individuals. However, if I’m truly honest I spent the two years praying about it more than looking for donors. I didn’t want to get caught up in asking for money if they weren’t really going to get permission to add on the extra grades. I didn’t want to look like I lied to people if the application to extend didn’t go through. Which, is exactly what happened last year. They thought they had verbal permission and started accepting applications to find out that they didn’t have the signed paper giving permission and at the last minute the students had to go to the government school in town.

This last year was then spent redoing some of the paperwork, and creating all sorts of other documents for the application. As of February 11^th, the paper was signed and we received it a week later granting permission to extend 7^th grade next year, adding one grade each year. With the exception that we have to build a new building to have enough classrooms for the extensions. Currently there are 2 classrooms that can be used in the 2016 school year, but the new building will need to be completed by May 2017.

Hence the purpose of this blog. The school has saved some money, gotten some grants, Presbyterian Church USA has given a grant, and I raised some money while I was at home for Christmas. However, I need to check on this, but last I knew, we are less than halfway to the estimated 6 million Baht that will be needed. Over the next year or so, I will try to be diligent in updating the blog for those people that have already donated, and to get others interested in helping with the project. I mentioned before that I spent two years praying about this project. The director sent out proposals hoping that one person or group would fund the whole project. While I haven’t put that out of the picture, I feel that it is more likely going to happen by individual donors and churches that hear of this project and give what they can. I’ve also encouraged them to seek funds from churches and other schools in Thailand, as well as alumni. I think it would be great if someone hears of this and would make a matching challenge for alumni, churches, teachers, etc…

This is getting long, so I’ll finish by inviting you to check into this blog from time to time. I’ll try to update it consistently as things start happening. They will start building with the funds that they currently have, and will continue to raise funds until the project is complete. If at some point there aren’t enough funds, they will have to take out a loan. Please be praying for this project, and spread the word to your friends, family, and churches.

God Bless You, and thank you for your interest, help, and support J